Last update - 14:29 16/10/2004
Left-wing activists not allowed to help olive-pickers
By Nir
Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel Defense Forces troops denied the entry of more than 100 Israeli left-wing activists who had come to assist in an olive harvest, into the village of Azawiyeh in the northern West Bank on Saturday morning.
The army said it feared a violent confrontation would ensue between the pro-Palestinian groups and settlers living in the nearby settlement of Eli.
Security forces have declared the area a sealed military zone and will not allow the activists to enter it.
Police have so far arrested three of the people who entered the area.
Military sources say they have suggested that the activists help picking olives in areas that are no threatened by clashes with settlers but the activists refused.
The leftist groups deny that any such suggestion was made.
Settlers may have attacked 5 int'l peace activists
Police say settlers may have been behind attacks on five international peace activists in the West Bank last Saturday. The peace activists were assaulted when they were escorting Palestinian children to school in the village of Al-Tuwani in the southern Hebron hills, on a route that passes between the settlement of Maon and the outpost called Maon Ranch. An Italian peace volunteer and an Amnesty International member required medical treatment after being badly beaten with clubs.
This is the latest of three attacks on volunteers perpetrated in the past month.
Kim Lamberty, an American volunteer with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), described the first attack against members of her organization on September 29: "We were escorting five children to school, when five masked figures dressed in black jumped out at us. The children began to run. I was knocked down and beat with a chain. I lay immobile so they would think I was dead."
Lamberty's arm and leg were broken. Her colleague Chris Brown was also hospitalized with a punctured lung. Last Wednesday, rocks were thrown at a single volunteer, who escaped unharmed.
Police say the attacks are not spontaneous outbreaks of violence, but rather the work of a well-organized group, whose members wear black, don ski masks and arm themselves with wooden clubs, chains and rocks. Jewish settlers in the area have long been harassing Palestinian residents. Palestinian children are afraid to go to school and many have dropped out.
The recent attacks are seen as an intensification of the violence. "Until now we were subjected to stone-throwing and spontaneous actions, but not a planned ambush," says Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, another organization active in the area.
Activists also complain about police indifference to the attacks. "We lay waiting there for half an hour before the police came. We could have easily been killed," says Lamberty. No suspects have been detained yet "but if the assailants were Arabs they would have arrested the whole village and found the guilty parties" says Ezra Nawi, an activist with Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish partnership.
Over the past week the Israel Defense Forces has been discussing solutions with the residents of Tuba and with the peace activists. The IDF is demanding that the international volunteers leave, promising that soldiers would take over the job of escorting the children safely to school. But Palestinian children are afraid of the soldiers. "We don't trust the IDF to keep up the routine either," Nawi said.
Judea and Samaria police spokesman Sagi Shlomi said the police are taking the attacks very seriously. "This is a subversive group that has carried out aggravated assault offenses and robbery. We have made 14 searches in Maon and Maon Ranch, and called in dozens of policemen to the scene."
The IDF spokesperson said that an army unit will secure the children's passage every morning. An army source added that the international activists would not be allowed to pass because a terrorist might try to infiltrate with them and hurt the settlers. "As soon as the peace activists are gone, things will calm down," he said.